Just some thoughts

I am the ward choir director right now. I've only had the calling for the last four months, and most of that time has been spent working on Christmas music- and reworking Christmas music as people join the choir and require a catch-up. It's very frustrating at times, but at other times, it makes my heart soar and sing. After some extra intense rehearsals, we sang at our stake music fireside last night and . . . I can't quite express what happened to me inside. I looked out over the 20+ faces watching me while I conducted and the words surrounded me and supported me and tears came to my eyes. We will sing in church next week . . . and then I will be released from that calling, because the Temple Square Chorale and Choir School begins on January 6th and that will be my full church calling.

I finally concluded my internal battle about singing in church (because sometimes it feels like showing off) and asked my friend Chad to sing "O Holy Night" with me as part of the Christmas program. I'm a first soprano, Chad is a first tenor with a gorgeous voice. We sound quite stunning together, if I do say so myself. And Chad was super enthusiastic when I asked him, because unbeknownst to me, he loves that song so much that he sings it all year round. I think I may be crying a good bit during the Christmas program on Sunday.

A huge perk to leaving work after dark in the winter- at least in December- is that I get one gorgeous Christmas light show on my way home- first I drive past This is the Place Park and Hogle Zoo, both of which put up great light displays, and then through the fancy neighborhood along Wasatch Drive where some people really go all out. It does make my heart happy.

My good friends Sarah and Brian got engaged this weekend. I'm pondering again why I find myself becoming good friends with couples and spending time with them- on the one hand, it's great fun and we're always such good friends that it's not weird, but on the other hand . . . it would be kind of nice to have another guy there.

In related news, my brother Mark also got engaged this weekend. My cute little brother Mark. I love that kid. He's got some of the best people skills I've ever seen, which will be amazing when he's a doctor, after all his school is done. His fiancee, Jill, is a girl who grew up down the street. She performed in many of the neighborhood plays that Becca and I produced during the summers, and I taught her flute lessons for a few years. Come to think of it, I think I babysat her a few times. Although I'm not sure that it counted as real babysitting- we seemed to mostly just play with each other. Of course, that's what I mostly did with the kids I babysat. Anyway, Jill served a mission in Thailand. This is also a plus, because I adore Thailand and so maybe we can plan a trip there and she can be my in resource.

Jill's family is pretty much already part of our family in a way. Her mom, Jeannie, is my mother's guardian angel. Several years ago, Jeannie decided to take it upon herself to start giving assistance to my mom as she started getting sicker and sicker. Now the women from the Relief Society come over every day and visit with Mom, play the piano, get her meals, and get her down for naps. And Jeannie leads out. Laura and Angela refer to her as their other mother. Jeannie is a nurse, and when I had my first surgery in junior high, which was by far the scariest because I had no idea what it was like to have surgery, she came and found my hospital room and brought me a teddy bear with real feather wings to be my guardian angel bear. Oh, we love her at my house. So we don't foresee any in-law problems for Mark and Jill.

Yep, okay. I think I have all the rambling out of my system by now. Except- it's December 13th, T's birthday. His birthday is exactly three months before mine. This makes him my extra-special nephew. Happy birthday, T!